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I need to step away from Royal Hats for a few weeks. After making a remarkable recovery from a health crisis and several surgeries, my mother unexpectedly passed away yesterday.  She was incredibly touched by your well wishes for her recovery- after all we hear that is negative on the internet, she was amazed that strangers from around the world took the time to write her a message of encouragement. She was also absolutely delighted with the nickname you gave her- Hat Queen Mother – and would issue me a royal wave whenever she felt particularly regal (daily, it seemed!), citing her new title as justification to do so. This new moniker gave her great joy over the last few weeks and for this, I thank you so very much.

My mom was a talented amateur seamstress and I grew up at the foot of her sewing machine. I can identify fabric types, interesting construction details (and shoddy workmanship!) thanks to her tutelage and while she never commented here, her voice was woven into our conversations simply because it’s ingrained in my own perspective. She checked Royal Hats each morning, gently scolded when there was not a new post (or a feature of a hat she didn’t think warranted one!) and looked forward to Ascot more than anyone. She was my biggest fan and I can’t express how much I will miss her.

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Without further ado, here are stats for the most new hats/headpieces worn by royals last year:This is the last statistic I prepared for 2019 and found results here the most surprising. Last week, the question of royal stylists and borrowed hats came up in discussion at this post. I bring it up here because a number of royals at the top of this list – Princess Beatrice, Zara Tindall, Princess Eugenie, Autumn Phillips- routinely wear hats a single time, strongly suggesting to me they are borrowed, at the hands of a stylist, for a particular event. Because we don’t know how many hats are purchased (although we do know that Queen Maxima, Queen Mathilde, the Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge all purchase their hats), these numbers aren’t completely accurate, nor can be. Until we see a hat/headpiece worn a second time, we simply don’t know if it’s a purchased piece or a loaner.

I’m curious, dear readers, for your response to these numbers. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this statistical look back at the royal hats we saw last year!

This is the one some of you have been waiting for- an answer to the question, “Who wore the most hats in 2019?” Again, the measurement is the number of times that each royal wore a hat/headpiece (not the number of different hats each person wore). Included on the graph below are all of the royals who wore a hat five or more times last year; click on the graph to open it in a larger size:

Yesterday, we looked at the combined number of times royal houses saw one of their member wears a hat or headpiece last year. Today, we’re looking which queens/consorts donned a hat most often. Again, the measurement is number of  times a hat was publicly worn on each of these very regal heads (click on the graph below to open a larger version):